This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Google Scholar Articles by Sermijn, J. Articles by Loots, G. Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

The Narrative Construction of the Self

Selfhood as a Rhizomatic Story

Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

Patrick Devlieger

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, University of Illinois, Chicago

Gerrit Loots

Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, University of Ghent, Belgium

In this article, the authors use the metaphor of the rhizome of the French philosophers Deleuze and Guattari as an experimental methodological concept to study the narrative construction of the self. By considering the self as a rhizomatic story, the authors create a story structure that not only offers a useful view on the way in which people narratively construct their selfhood but also stimulates an experiment with alternative, nontraditional presentation forms. The researcher is no longer listening from a distance to the stories of the participant and subsequently represents these stories. She or he becomes a part of the rhizome. The authors illustrate this rhizomatic approach and its research possibilities by presenting story fragments from their research.

Key Words: narrative construction • self • rhizome • nontraditional presentation forms

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?